Left Behind
by Esinololly
Summary: Three Pikmin are left behind to fend for themselves for the next few days...will they survive even with the help of an unlikely ally? WIP


**Lolly**: Hello everyone! WHOO! It's about time I've gotten around to making a Pikmin fanfiction. That game deserves more fandom, after all. It's not your run-of-the-mill slash things with a sword or shooting them with a gun...and it actually has an interesting plot line as well..it's a short game, but hey- the play time was cut short for details…. I'd say it's defiantly one of the more original games out there, and it deserves quite a bit of appreciation.

If anyone would be interested to be my beta, please let me know! Thank you!

* * *

Olimar looked up to the horizon in disdain. The sun was rapidly descending behind the cliffs beyond, harshly reminding him of the dwindling time he had left to do his task. Its subsiding presence painted the skies above in warm hues, only to be soon replaced with velvety darkness. The hocotatian never resented night as much as he did since the crash landing. Each day that drawled by meant the window of his survival was terminating to a ghastly demise of suffocation. This would leave all of his hard work of recovering his ship to crumble in fruitless vain.

He had befriended the Pikmin species easily, yet put them through all levels of hell in order to perform life threatening missions just so he could survive. He watched them wither and die, witnessing a wide variety of different deaths bestow upon them . Not a single day past that he regretted putting them through harmful situations, but they were his only hope. As long as they were willing to help him, he would not put their hard work to waste by dying on them and now is too late to turn back.

Although the Dolphin was near completion, he only had a few days left before that possible event of death could occur to him. His air systems had already reverted to backups, but not even they could hold up for long if he didn't restore his beloved ship. It's ironic really...he was on vacation, yet crashed landed into this thorny paradise only to have a time restricted fatality stamped on his forehead. If it weren't for the Pikmin...he wouldn't know what to do..

But he can't think about that right now, there's no time for second doubts. He's almost done and needs a few more parts until he is back into the safety zone and to his loving family…._Family_….-

Olimar shook his head free of thoughts and focused on the job ahead. It took him most of the day to clear a pathway for his vulnerable carrier Pikmin, which is now littered with corpses of various species, and time was running out. He is just a few steps away from his next missing part: The Interstellar Radio. If he didn't get it before nightfall, it would knock off his one-part-a-day routine that he barely managed to keep up with so far. He doesn't know if the other parts may take more than a day to retrieve, but he could try with this one.

Gathering up his determination, Olimar peeked from behind the hollowed out tree stump. Not far away from the hiding spot was a multi-colored puffy blowhog that floated about in leisure. He almost felt sorry for the lofty creature, but he had to have his Interstellar Radio back. According to his radar, the radio was in the hydrogen filled belly of the beast. How such a large piece got past that thin snout and into its stomach, he'll never know, but he knew how to take it out.

Olimar hid behind the bark wall and faced the silent Pikmin. They all looked up in response, their vibrantly colored faces forming a unique mosaic. There were about of hundred of them, all colors present. He knew for a fact that a few would die...but the sacrifices were necessary and would not be in vain. Olimar let out a high pitched whistle and they all assembled accordingly, their eyes focused and ready to go.

The alien peeked his face once again from behind the bark to make sure the blowhog's back was to him. When the unsuspecting monster turned its back a few seconds later, Olimar sprang from behind the bark wall and ran towards the floating creature. The flowered Pikmin were not far behind and the budded and leaves arrived by his side a second later.

As soon as he got into range, Olimar instantly started chucking the Pikmin at the vulnerable yet spined back. Some missed and fell to the ground while others clung to the rubbery skin and instantly started attacking.

One of the flung attackers was a red flower Pikmin, who savagely pecked at the enemy with its long beak. It held onto the floating hog tightly with its paws as the larger of the two screamed a silent yell in surprise as it began to sustain heavy damage. It desperately shook its pained air-borne body in attempt to relieve the offending Pikmin from its vulnerable back.

"_Whoa_!", the flowered red Pikmin yelled, as it almost lost its footing due to the shaking. It held onto the smooth surface fast, but barely as it was rapidly loosing its grip. Spotting one of the large spikes that adorned the blowhogs' back, it made a split-second decision to leap forward and wrap itself around the sharp appendage. It had no chance to save its comrades as they flew off abruptly, only to be blown away into a deadly puddle below. It held on with all of its strength, trying to ignore the pained cries below.

"_Oh god_…", it whispered, trying to tune out waning squeaks of agony until they were stilled, clutching onto the spike as if it were a comforting teddy bear.

When the puffy blowhog was satisfied with watching the pests drown, Olimar flung a new wave of blues and yellows at it. The blues barely reached it, but the yellows had no problem, as they were more aerodynamic. Once they landed, they immediately started pounding with their fists and stems in determination.

The blowhog roared in annoyance to feel yet another cluster of Pikmin banging on its back. It scrunched up its eyes in disgust, already fed up with this battle. Its kind was not carnivorous, but to be taken down by lowly Pikmin of all things was a society crisis to them. Deciding to teach the disgraceful leeches a lesson, it shook itself again like a wet dog and inhaled a large amount of air. When full, it blew a gust out via its snout, blowing away half of the offenders a few feet away from it. Some of the unfortunate yellow and reds were blown into a nearby puddle to drown while the knocked off blues were in daze as their loosened petals fluttered about them. All of them simply shook off the water shortly after and charged back into the battle except for one.

The little blue Pikmin laid on its back in the water, its body sore from when it unluckily slammed into a boulder that stuck out of the water. It groaned in pain as it reached back to consciousness, watching in mild annoyance as its once flowery stem reverted back to an inferior leaf. It attempted to stand up on its back paws a moment later only to find that it can barely succeed doing so. Its sight was blurred for a few moments before the view of the battle was clear before it.

_'Cursed blowhog.._', it said to itself as it hurriedly attempted to regain its courage and posture. It run as fast as it could with its leaf rank, but it was immediately blown back with another gust of wind. It landed on its back in the shallow water, a colorful stream of curses flowing from its mouth. It stood up again, and shook off the excess water.

_'Ugh...Once I get my paws on y-',_ before it could finish its sentence, a wall of blue suddenly blocked its vision as another water Pikmin accidentally slammed into it bodily, causing it to fall back yet again into the puddle. This causes its head to whack into the rocky bottom of the puddle, pain instantly coursing through its body from the impact.

"_Ow...",_ it groaned as its view flickered like a faulty light bulb until it swam into complete darkness. Its brilliant sapphire skin turned into a pale hue as it fainted.

When the puffy blowhog blew more gusts of air at the defenseless ground troops, the red flowered Pikmin continued to hold onto a spike for dear life, its eyes screwed shut in fear.

"_P-__please let this be over s-soon.._', it said to itself shakily as it heard its friends die mercilessly down below. It wasn't alone long when Olimar threw yet another wave of Pikmin at the beast. This group was of yellow ones, and they all reached the top perfectly fine. As soon as their paws steadily stood on the rubbery spinal column they started attacking.

The blowhog stopped gushing out air and started to shake feverishly, successfully throwing off the newly arrived troops. However, one budded yellow managed to cling onto one of the stout fins during the assault, but barely as its weak paws hardly penetrated the skin for a decent grip.

The red one noticed the struggling comrade and watched it hold on for dear life. It looked down below and saw nothing but water. The puffy blowhog must have shifted itself over the puddle over time during the battle without its notice. If the yellow Pikmin were to let go, it would be the end of its short life. Shakings itself free of anxiety and fear, the red Pikmin made sure it had a firm grip on the spike before shifting its body around the spike and closer to the fin.

"_Yellow Pikmin!",_ it yelled, trying to catch the others attention. Said frightened creature looked up in surprise, its eyes shining with undeveloped tears and its ears downcast.

"_Grab onto my stem_!", the red one ordered as it slowly lowered its head so that the flowered top could reach for the rescue. The yellow one gulped and shakily held a paw out, barely brushing a petal. Huffing in determination it lurched toward in attempt to grab the base of the white flower, but missed.

"_Oh no_!", the yellow one squeaked, now hanging off of the beast by one paw. By now, the blowhog had already blew another mini-storm at the group of yellows who are now drowning underneath. The scarred yellow looked down from its vantage point and saw nothing but lethal water below. Tears started to slip down its golden cheeks until its attention was snapped back to the persistent yelling of the flowered red Pikmin.

"_Try one more time! Don't look down_!", the red Pikmin encouraged, stretching its lithe body to attempt to reach farther. Bunching up its energy, the yellow one held onto the fin harder and began to lightly swing its body towards the flowered stem. The first two swings were too weak, but the third one allowed it enough momentum to allow it to touch a single petal. With a final determined swing, it managed to grasp onto it with full grip.

"_Hm_?", The red Pikmin mumbled, looking down past the yellow. Seeing the peculiar expression at such an inappropriate time, the yellow one couldn't help but look down as well to see what was so appalling but instantly knew why: They were a step away from the ground.

Before both could react to the new discovery, Olimar blew another type of high pitched whistle and the ground Pikmin swarmed in on the blowhog prey. The beast shook in agony as the lesser beings beat it into a pulp, causing its flabbery skin to jiggle like jell-o. With one last roar, the puffy blowhog weakly sneezed a few Pikmin away from it, before it died. The budded yellow and flowered red stood still as they watched a fellow Pikmin give the last final blow and **POP**!

Neither suspected to be violently thrown into the air as the balloon-like body was popped as the hydrogen was violently escaping it. Basically the Pikmin were latched onto a popped balloon, which is now whizzing around the landscape. The wind whipped into their wide eyes harshly, tears edging out of them as the deflating skin jerked them around in unpredictable directions.

The yellow one could feel its tight grip slipping away from the thin stem of the red. It vaguely wondered if the pulling on the others stem hurt, but that thought wasn't long lived when they abruptly crashed into the solid ground. The impact sent both into a skull pounding daze, their equilibrium shot and their conscience floating away…

* * *

Olimar sighed in relief to finally see the beast go down and drop his trusty Interstellar Radio. He ordered a few dozen or so Pikmin to pick it up and carry it away while another group transported the nectar spoils left by the puffy blowhog. He glanced at the departing sun and smirked at it in pride to calculate that he still had time to deliver the part before nightfall. He quickly eyeballed his Whimsical Radar before urgently returning to camp, failing to notice three differently colored blips beeping on the map…

* * *

"_Ugh...mmmn_", Yellow mumbled incoherently, rubbing its now sore head with its paws. Its thoughts swam around like scattering fish, unable to create a half-baked intelligent word. It sat itself up, but quickly regretting it as it felt pain course through its body like an electric shock.

Its pained half-mast eyes looked around in the landscape and noticing it was defiantly not that of where they battled the blowhog…the skin must have carried them here in its wild departure. It looked to its left only to see the deflated skin disappearing in thin air and the unmoving flowered red Pikmin on the ground not far away. The sun was disappearing behind the far away trees hurriedly, and the harmony of predator roars eerily pregnated the air and into its sensitive ears.

Suddenly, apprehension broke through the dazed barrier that fogged its mind and alarmed the creature of what was going on and what was going to happen if it didn't get up NOW.

One: It was now stranded in the middle of a field- Completely exposed.

Two: It was alone (well…there is the red one, but they are unconscious…and possibly dead…so they don't really count)

And three: It was almost dark!

Panic suddenly gripped it, and ignoring its clawing pain, it stood up on its back paws and looked wildly around. It couldn't have been knocked out for too long as the sun was bearly visible and it was still alive, meaning the nocturnal predators didn't get it….yet.

"_Oh no oh no oh noooo_!", it squeaked nervously, doing the panic dance. It wouldn't be long before night came and it would surely die if it didn't do something!

Mentally prioritizing its thoughts, it suddenly remembered the motionless flowered red Pikmin…there is a glint of hope after all... Running up to the red ones side, it looked at the others face, praying that they would show a sign of life. Nothing happened. The yellow let out another anxious squeak before gently pawing at their face like a hungry kitten. The red Pikmin let out an annoyed snort before fluttering its bulbous eyes open. Yellow would have smiled if it had a mouth.

Giving the other some space, Yellow backed a few paw steps away and intently watched the other come back to reality.

"_Where…? What..?",_ Red asked as it attempted to get up fruitlessly, it eyes still layered with sleep and pain.

"_You should lay back down until you've come to_", Yellow advised in a gentle voice, glad that the other was alive and kicking.

"_..That would be…ugh..ideal..",_ Red answered, flopping back onto the ground and spread out its nimble limbs. _"…Say…where are we? Where is the Guardian_?", it asked, turning its head lazily towards the brightly colored one.

"_Well..all I know is that it's almost nightfa-",_ Yellow began uneasily.

"_WHAT_!?", Red squawked, instantly sitting up and looking at the other incredulously, as if they had sprouted another head.

"_SHH SHH_!", Yellow stressed waving its tiny arms frantically. It looked wildly around, hoping the early nocturnal predators didn't hear it..but it was too late. It wasn't even a second later when a bestial howl emitted from a mysterious source behind them.

"_O-Oh no…",_ Yellow whispered, slowly turning their head towards the sound in fear. Looking back at it was a pair of glowing, red slitted eyes and a puffy fanged muzzle underneath…a dreadful Bulbear. There was a heavy silence between the three until-

"…**RUUUUNN!",** Red hollered, stumbling onto its back paws before running as fast as it could from just recovering from its daze in the opposite direction. Yellow soon followed suit, not daring to look back when it felt the ground below them rumble from the beasts heavy footsteps.

"_This is a nightmare!",_ Yellow screeched, hearing the thundering footsteps get closer and closer. The sun had completely withdrawn from the sky and blanketed the earth in an ominous cloak of darkness. The Pikmin could barely see where they were going as their unadapted eyes drank in the surroundings that were lightly dusted with the moons soothing rays.

"_Whats that!?",_ They both squealed in unison as they saw four objects rocket into the air, a line of fire following one of them. They both knew in fear that it was Gaurdians rocket and the onions taking refuge into the stars above, but they were in denial. There's no way they forgot them!

"_Keep running_!", red insisted, scampering around the corner that was once a stone wall that blocked their path for spoils. Yellow only answered by obeying the action, hoping that maybe what they saw was a cruel figment of their imagination that was caused by their throbbing adrenaline...

They arrived at the landing site, but no Onions or Guardian to be seen…But this was the least of their worries right now, as the predator was still coming towards them at frightening speeds.

"What do we do now!?", Yellow panicked, nervously hopping from one foot to another and peeking behind itself to make sure the beast didn't spot them yet.

Red looked around hurriedly, panic evident in its body language as well. That's when it spotted a pile of sticks that was lying innocuously by a tree stump a few feet away. _Perfect_.

"_Hurry_!", it said, catching Yellows attention and pointing to their possible escape. Yellow realized what was one their mind and ran towards it. Red was not far behind as they started to build the angled pole as fast as they could. Only a few seconds later did their enemy round the corner, looking for its future meal. It took a deep whiff of dust off the ground before sniffing the air, trying to catch wind of the distressed Pikmin.

Now they were almost half-way done, but not enough to be completely out of harms way. Yellow glanced over its shoulder to discover that the bloodthirsty Bulbear was not far behind.

"_We must hurry!",_ Yellow whispered frantically, arranging the sticks together as fast as it could. Red physically answered with a curt nod, anxious sweat slicking down its thin frame.

"Almost done…", Red mumbled, glancing at apex of their work to see that it was almost to the top, licking the ledge of the hollowed tree stump. "_Listen, start climbing now while I continue to work. I'll be right behind you_", Red ordered, peering at Yellow to see their reaction. The bright one stared at the other in disbelief, but quickly transformed it into a serious expression, understanding what they wanted.

It grasped both tiny paws onto the branch and lifted its body up so that it could wrap around the stick pole, sloth style. It glanced worriedly at Red before climbing up the rough bark that lightly scraped its fluorescent skin like sand paper.

The Bulbear almost gave up on its pursuit when the wind caressed its sensitive nostrils, alarming him that they were still around…but where? It stomped across the Landing Site in confusion until something caught the corner of its eye- A stick rising into the air as if by magic..but it wasn't the stick that really caught its attention, it was the brightly colored treat that was climbing up it!

Growling in pleasure, it waddled past the Landing site and over the view blocking tree roots to spot that the red Pikmin was still on the ground…and vulnerable. Licking its bulgy lips at the tasty treasures to come it charged at full speed towards the prey.

Yellow reached the top of the stump and belly flopped onto the welcoming surface. As much as it wanted to shower the safety zone with grateful kisses, it got up on its back paws and ran back to the ledge to make sure Red was okay. They had already started climbing up and where almost half way when Yellow noticed the stump vibrating under its feet.

"What the..?", it asked in disorientation when it saw the charging Bulbear heading straight for the stick pole…the stick pole that red was still climbing!

"Hurry up red! The great black predator is running towards you!", it alarmed, waving its arms wildly to emphasize the danger. Red glanced over its shoulder to find that true..and the cursed Bulbear was only a few feet away!

It refused to let its body lock up in fear and made it up the pole as quickly as it could, the footsteps getting louder and louder by the split second. Yellow glanced between the space between them closing quickly and decided to go for the rescue when the other was nearly close enough. It grasped onto the ledge of the wall and held out its bud for Red to reach.

"Hurry! Take my stem!"

* * *

**Lolly**: OHSNAP a cliffhanger. Will they both survive the pursuiting Bulbear? What happened to the blue Pikmin!? You'll find out in the next chapter!

By the way, I like to think that the Pikmin see Olimar as a leadry, fathery guardiany type to them (despite the fact he kills them) so they title him as Leader, Father and Guardian. Mmyes. Critiques are welcome, and flames are too. I don't take things like that personally/seriously and like to laugh at them, so why not?


End file.
